Because of the diversity of intervention programs and the innovative ways in which stakeholders throughout supply chains interact and exert their agency, the relationship between subjective transformation and particular socioeconomic reward structures in development remains under-theorized. By exploring the ways in which farmers respond to incentives and constraints within development programs as well as the way in which farmers’ own agendas and values come to shape the reality of development, this workshop seeks to connect the complicated forces shaping farmer identity to direct environmental management. In doing so, it aims to better describe a political ecology of development roles in South Asia and refocus attention on socially mediated environmental management. This workshop will provide a venue for historians, anthropologists, geographers, and economists from South Asia, Europe, and North America to discuss new empirical and theoretical research in development and performance across the agrarian landscape. We intend to publish an edited volume or special issue journal based on the papers and discussions inspired by this workshop. This project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and took place April 27-29, 2017 in Heidelberg, Germany.
Publications related to this project:
Selected papers from this workshop were published in a special section of the Journal of Political Ecology , including contributions from Paul Richards, Glenn Davis Stone, Dominic Glover, Harro Maat, Andrew Flachs, Debarati Sen, and Daniel Münster.
Flachs, Andrew and Paul Richards. 2018. “Playing development roles: the political ecology of performance in agricultural development.” Journal of Political Ecology, 25(1):638-646.
Flachs, Andrew. 2018. “Development roles: contingency and performance in alternative agriculture in Telangana, India.” Journal of Political Ecology, 25(1):716-731.